Simon Goode

Simon Goode is the founder of the Centre for Book Arts London which is the first of its kind in the UK. It offers educational and class programs in bookbinding and printing.

Simon started off by talking about artists that were of interest to the Centre and their work. The first was Ed Ruscha being that he made the first ever artist book called 26 Gasoline stations and then a book called The Democratic Multiple.

Simon then went on to explaining a bit about his background. He graduated in 2006 from London College of Communication with a BA in Book Arts and Crafts. Upon leaving his degree he found he had nowhere to work. In 2011 he departed on a 3 month trip in the USA looking at different kinds of book establishments. He went from coast to coast on trains and visited book workshop such as Printed Matter, Baltimore Print Studio, Chicago Centre for Book and Paper Arts, Hamilton Wood Type Museum, Minnesota Centre for Book Arts and Em Space. All of these spaces gave his the encouragement to open up his own book art centre in London.

The Centre for Book Arts in London hosts a range of materials, facilities and programs in a space in Fish Island in Hackney. Simon explained the majority of his book facilities came from an old man who wife used to do bookbinding in their garage. He now has a bindery, letter print press and he hosts workshops and public programs and also provides a membership to the facilities.

So far the Centre has worked with artists such as Nous Vous, Dante Carlos, Matinez and Trees, Caragh Thuring, Nick Goss and Esme Winter.

This year the Centre will be welcoming Publication Studio to their workshop, a company only currently present in America.

I really enjoyed Simon’s talk as I was not aware of the Centre and I thought it was a interesting establishment that one day could be important to my work. It is useful to know what they provide in order to take the best away from that. I liked the fact he linked us to several artists which I have looked at and found excitng in particular Sister Corita Kent, someone who I would have possibly never come across if it was not for this talk.